RTM, RMC, or neither? Who actually controls your building
People use “RTM” and “RMC” as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference decides who appoints the managing agent, who signs the contracts, and who carries the legal duties. This page sets out the four arrangements you are likely to meet.
RMC: a residents’ management company
An RMC is a company named in the lease as responsible for managing the building. It is usually owned by the leaseholders, who each hold a share, and run by directors drawn from among them.
An RMC exists because the lease says so. There is no application and no threshold — if you bought a flat in a block set up this way, you are probably already a member whether or not anyone told you.
The RMC’s obligations come from the lease. It appoints the managing agent, approves the budget, and is the party the leaseholders contract with. Directors owe the usual duties under the Companies Act 2006, and are personally responsible for filing at Companies House.
RTM: the statutory right to manage
An RTM company is different in origin. It is created by leaseholders exercising a statutory right under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, whether or not the freeholder agrees.
The key features:
It is a no-fault right. You do not have to prove the current management is bad. The freeholder cannot refuse if the building and the claim qualify.
Management transfers; ownership does not. The freeholder keeps the freehold and remains the landlord. What moves is the day-to-day management and the service charge.
It follows a prescribed procedure — notice inviting participation, then a claim notice, then a counter-notice period, then an acquisition date.
Qualifying conditions, in outline: the building must be self-contained or a self-contained part; at least two-thirds of the flats must be held by qualifying tenants on long leases; no more than 50% of the internal floor area may be non-residential; and at least half the flats must participate.
That 50% figure changed on 3 March 2025 — it was 25% until the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 raised it, which brought a lot of mixed-use blocks with shops on the ground floor into scope for the first time.
The same commencement brought in sections 87A and 87B of the 2002 Act: an RTM company and its members are no longer liable for the landlord’s costs of dealing with a claim notice. Liability can still arise if the claim is withdrawn or ceases to have effect, or if the RTM company acts unreasonably. Anything you read describing RTM applicants as automatically liable for the freeholder’s legal bill is describing the law before March 2025.
Neither: the freeholder manages
In many blocks there is no RMC and no RTM company. The freeholder — or an agent it appoints — manages the building and collects the service charge, and leaseholders have no say in who that agent is.
You are not without rights. The reasonableness tests, the consultation requirements and the right to inspect the accounts all still apply. But you cannot change the agent, which is the usual reason leaseholders look at RTM.
Where management is genuinely failing, there is a separate route: an application to the First-tier Tribunal under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 to appoint a manager. Unlike RTM, that one is fault-based — you have to prove the case.
Commonhold
Commonhold removes the landlord altogether: you own your flat freehold, and a commonhold association owns and manages the common parts. It has existed since 2004 and has barely been used, though government policy is to make it the default tenure for new flats in future.
For an existing leasehold block, converting to commonhold currently requires the agreement of every leaseholder and the freeholder, which is why almost no conversions happen.
Which one applies to you
Check the lease first. If a management company is named in it as a party alongside you and the freeholder, you are in an RMC. If not, and no RTM claim has been made, the freeholder manages, and Right to Manage is the route that changes that.
Ask us about your building
Send us the building address and the number of flats and we will tell you which arrangement applies and, if RTM is the answer, whether the building qualifies. No charge for that.